Hitty is providing 1/3 of the necessary power to run Annex One. Even with it standing still, it’s still no longer connected to any outside utilities.
And my take on Nick’s comment is that he resents Sweetheart and Unity dissing his robot-ness. Yes, Sweetheart said that Hitty and M are required to pilot the building, but that does not imply that Nick is expendable.
Think big – Nick has enough loathing for himself AND others! Although… now that I think about it… recently its been more self-pity. Hmm… I guess we can call that ‘progress.’
Entering Hitty plus Moustachio with Annex One as an “accessory” would be a fait accompli
Presumably the Three Laws of Robotics were an inconvenient hassle in this universe? So Nick will have to a) suit up and b) go all Neo on that humidifier! 😉
“I’m afraid you’ve been in a terrible accident. And we’ve had to – it’s a bit hard to say…”
“Give it to me straight, doc. I can take it,”
“I’m afraid we’ve had to replace pretty much your whole body with flesh.”
“NOOO!!!”
So dump out all the humans, Hitty + Mustachio enter the deathmatch, and Annex One is their chassis. Should be an easy win. What problem with this obvious plan am I not seeing, here?
I’d imagine the logic goes “if we allowed non-standard equipment everyone would be bringing in rocket launchers! Annex One isn’t autonomous, so it doesn’t qualify for a Machine Union card of it’s own.”
What constitutes “standard equipment?” Is Nick banned from bringing a helicopter to the robot fight, or is he banned from NOT bringing a helicopter to it?
Nick is a helicopter. Just like Bubbles is a water cooler. They just both happen to currently have bodies that look human. Nick could not, in his present body, bring another helicopter into a fight. But if his brain were transferred back into a helicopter, that would be his new current body, so he could bring it. The important point is, he still has a valid Union membership card.
I think the critical distinction would that while Hitty is a critical component of Annex One, Annex One is not a critical component of Hitty.
In the current configuration, Hitty could leave Annex One and still function. However, if they had removed her reactor and her “brain”, and installed them in the building, such that she could not function without the building, then it would be different.
Okay, but by that definition, Hitty has to remove her armor plating, her treads, possibly even her Hitting arm, just to qualify for the tournament, since she’s presumably capable of “functioning” stripped down to just her CPU and power plant.
It’s just as possible that by being connected, and functioning as a single unit, that Hitty, Moustachio, and Annex One would count as one robot. After all, M bolted himself to Hitty so they could win the contest against Hullcrusher Prime. They counted as one robot then, so why not now?
See, that’s what I was getting at. Machines tend to be a lot more modular and a lot less integrated than biological organisms. Parts can be replaced and swapped out. A robot that worked as a mechanic and a robot that worked as a programmer before the reality blindness hit could probably rob a radio shack, flee into a junkyard, and shamble from there to the top of the bracket… assuming they don’t have some hilarious personal foibles that result in counterproductive antics, of course.
But when does THAT ever come up in THIS webcomic? 😀
Since Nick’s a pacifist, that might be how he’d roll.
But, just wondering…if Unity ate a card-carrying Machine Union member, would she (temporarily) qualify? Bet she could put away a blender or humidifier, and still have room for a brainy dessert.
Maybe a better idea… Since Unity is technically a swarm of nano-machines, could she qualify for Union status on her own? Then she could take out the competition by eating them.
Not sure how she’d secure her shiny new union membership with the reality blindness up. “Society” and “Business-as-usual” are kinda disrupted beyond all recognition right now.
Presumably, the Union is run by machines, so they are apparently not affected by the reality blindness. Of course, if the membership card has to be delivered by USPS, that might pose a problem.
Yes because permanently locking up your opponent’s mind in an inescapable loop of mental nonsense, an endless hell from which there is neither reprieve nor death, is way better than smacking them until they say “Uncle.” That’s totally how pacifism works. 9_9
I like this idea, and yet I’m also rooting for Unity putting Nick through a crash course in combat. Optimally while styling it after the Rocky training montage.
I’ve just been to the Olympic National Forest, and much is Federal land, so that law probably doesn’t apply. Anyway, Shaenon’s drawing gives just a glimpse of how tough it is to find the tournament grounds to enforce the rules.
That is not how you use “y’all”. It is already plural and adding an “s” on the end is wrong. Plural possessive requires another apostrophe: “y’all’s”, but that is not what Nick is saying.
Yes, I’m a tech writer and editor from Texas, why do you ask?
Look, I’all don’t know how y’all use “y’all,” but I’all heard th’yall say “y’alls” at th’mall. Th’yall at th’mall call y’alls “the new y’all.” W’all use y’all however w’all wan’na.
Call me a purist, or just an old stick in the mud, but I’m of the mind that just because a million people use language incorrectly, that doesn’t suddenly make it correct. It simply means they’re uneducated.
English had “thou” as second person singular, and “you” as second person plural, but somewhere along the way “you” started doing double duty.
Didn’t eliminate the need for a second person plural, though. Which is why “youse” (New York City), or “y’all” or “you all” (the South) came into being.
The difference is that “y’all” is a perfectly valid contraction of “you all”, whereas “youse” is a regional/dialectical colloquialism. It is used as both singular and plural.
In some parts, “y’all” is so entrenched that the plural of “y’all” is “all y’all.” Elsewhere it is indeed “y’alls.” Where is meatNick from originally?
Yes, I’m a writer and editor from Ohio, where the equivalent (plural only) is “you guys” or, in bleedover from Pittsburgh, “yenz.”
Heh. I live in Pittsburgh, where the conventional spelling is “yinz”. But perhaps “yenz” is an Ohio variant; I don’t know Ohio well enough to be sure.
Also, I’ve heard both “all y’all” and “y’all all” used as pluralizations of “y’all”. One gentleman from Georgia explained that he thinks of “y’all” as the term for addressing a group and “y’all all” as the term for addressing a large group made up of smaller groups.
Deceased equine, meet cudgel. At least in this part of the south, the correct plural of “y’all” is indeed “all y’all”, with a connotation being not just y’all, a majority of a group, but all y’all: every one of the group.
What I’m used to is that “y’all” can be singular or plural, but as plural, it is nondescript or ambiguous, whereas “all y’all” is specific. Similar to what you described.
Nick’s 😐 face wins all internets
It would be a bit awkward to ask for Dr. Jones for a mechanical body now.
Maybe she could make him a robot suit, à la Gunbuster.
Isn’t Annex One currently standing still while the
awayfield team is gone?Or does Sweetheart mean that H&M are critical resources, not to be risked, while Nick . . . isn’t?
Nick seems to be inferring something like that, anyway.
I was wondering where they parked Annex One.
Wherever it wants.
Do they have valet parking?
Yes, they parked right on top of him.
Expendable. Yes.
Hitty is providing 1/3 of the necessary power to run Annex One. Even with it standing still, it’s still no longer connected to any outside utilities.
And my take on Nick’s comment is that he resents Sweetheart and Unity dissing his robot-ness. Yes, Sweetheart said that Hitty and M are required to pilot the building, but that does not imply that Nick is expendable.
Not to Unity or Sweetheart, but Nick’s self-loathing would make him take it that way.
Hmm…. True, Nick hates himself. But nope, I still don’t see it that way.
Think big – Nick has enough loathing for himself AND others! Although… now that I think about it… recently its been more self-pity. Hmm… I guess we can call that ‘progress.’
Entering Hitty plus Moustachio with Annex One as an “accessory” would be a fait accompli
Presumably the Three Laws of Robotics were an inconvenient hassle in this universe? So Nick will have to a) suit up and b) go all Neo on that humidifier! 😉
Nick should be so grateful that he can put out a string of obscenities right now.
Bless this ridiculous plot. Thank you both.
Silliness Benchmark…. Moved!
“I’m afraid you’ve been in a terrible accident. And we’ve had to – it’s a bit hard to say…”
“Give it to me straight, doc. I can take it,”
“I’m afraid we’ve had to replace pretty much your whole body with flesh.”
“NOOO!!!”
Cue the Twilight Zone theme in the background.
The classic “Eye of the beholder” episode, to be specific.
So dump out all the humans, Hitty + Mustachio enter the deathmatch, and Annex One is their chassis. Should be an easy win. What problem with this obvious plan am I not seeing, here?
I’d imagine the logic goes “if we allowed non-standard equipment everyone would be bringing in rocket launchers! Annex One isn’t autonomous, so it doesn’t qualify for a Machine Union card of it’s own.”
I wonder if there would be a problem in that Annex 1 is infested with bio-units?
Well, that would be why warpzone32‘s opening line says to dump out all the humans.
What constitutes “standard equipment?” Is Nick banned from bringing a helicopter to the robot fight, or is he banned from NOT bringing a helicopter to it?
Nick is a helicopter. Just like Bubbles is a water cooler. They just both happen to currently have bodies that look human. Nick could not, in his present body, bring another helicopter into a fight. But if his brain were transferred back into a helicopter, that would be his new current body, so he could bring it. The important point is, he still has a valid Union membership card.
Okay. So how is “Hitty plugged into Annex One” different from “Hitty in an Annex One Body?”
I think the critical distinction would that while Hitty is a critical component of Annex One, Annex One is not a critical component of Hitty.
In the current configuration, Hitty could leave Annex One and still function. However, if they had removed her reactor and her “brain”, and installed them in the building, such that she could not function without the building, then it would be different.
Okay, but by that definition, Hitty has to remove her armor plating, her treads, possibly even her Hitting arm, just to qualify for the tournament, since she’s presumably capable of “functioning” stripped down to just her CPU and power plant.
It’s just as possible that by being connected, and functioning as a single unit, that Hitty, Moustachio, and Annex One would count as one robot. After all, M bolted himself to Hitty so they could win the contest against Hullcrusher Prime. They counted as one robot then, so why not now?
See, that’s what I was getting at. Machines tend to be a lot more modular and a lot less integrated than biological organisms. Parts can be replaced and swapped out. A robot that worked as a mechanic and a robot that worked as a programmer before the reality blindness hit could probably rob a radio shack, flee into a junkyard, and shamble from there to the top of the bracket… assuming they don’t have some hilarious personal foibles that result in counterproductive antics, of course.
But when does THAT ever come up in THIS webcomic? 😀
it’s less funny that way.
Give him a list of paradoxes and enter him as the Logic Bombardier!
Since Nick’s a pacifist, that might be how he’d roll.
But, just wondering…if Unity ate a card-carrying Machine Union member, would she (temporarily) qualify? Bet she could put away a blender or humidifier, and still have room for a brainy dessert.
Maybe a better idea… Since Unity is technically a swarm of nano-machines, could she qualify for Union status on her own? Then she could take out the competition by eating them.
Not sure how she’d secure her shiny new union membership with the reality blindness up. “Society” and “Business-as-usual” are kinda disrupted beyond all recognition right now.
Presumably, the Union is run by machines, so they are apparently not affected by the reality blindness. Of course, if the membership card has to be delivered by USPS, that might pose a problem.
Yes because permanently locking up your opponent’s mind in an inescapable loop of mental nonsense, an endless hell from which there is neither reprieve nor death, is way better than smacking them until they say “Uncle.” That’s totally how pacifism works. 9_9
I like this idea, and yet I’m also rooting for Unity putting Nick through a crash course in combat. Optimally while styling it after the Rocky training montage.
“HITTY WILL NOW EXPLAIN NUANCES OF OPERATING SMASHING ARM.”
“Okay…”
“MUST BE QUICK AS LIGHTNING; DELICATE AS BUTTERFLY; MUST DELIVER EACH BLOW WITH PRECISION AND GRACE.”
“All right… I-I think I’m ready.”
“CHANGE BOOLEAN DO_SMASH FROM 0 TO 1 IN SMASHING ARM OUTPUT STREAM.”
(entire city block levelled in one smash)
“CAN ALSO TOGGLE DO_SMASH, BUT THIS IS ADVANCED TECHNIQUE.
THIS CONCLUDES TRAINING.”
“Only Machine Union members can enter.” Well, no wonder they set up in Washington State, then—it’s not a right-to-work state.
I’ve just been to the Olympic National Forest, and much is Federal land, so that law probably doesn’t apply. Anyway, Shaenon’s drawing gives just a glimpse of how tough it is to find the tournament grounds to enforce the rules.
If they were a federal union, they couldn’t exclude non-members.
Then again, the Union is sponsoring the tourney (whether they know it or not), so they can control the entries. And the site really is gorgeous!
They must be violating a dozen federal environmental protection laws every time a punch lands.
That is not how you use “y’all”. It is already plural and adding an “s” on the end is wrong. Plural possessive requires another apostrophe: “y’all’s”, but that is not what Nick is saying.
Yes, I’m a tech writer and editor from Texas, why do you ask?
Saying “y’alls” is like saying “yous”. It’s wrong, but people still do it.
Evolving language. Neither is wrong.
Look, I’all don’t know how y’all use “y’all,” but I’all heard th’yall say “y’alls” at th’mall. Th’yall at th’mall call y’alls “the new y’all.” W’all use y’all however w’all wan’na.
Call me a purist, or just an old stick in the mud, but I’m of the mind that just because a million people use language incorrectly, that doesn’t suddenly make it correct. It simply means they’re uneducated.
English had “thou” as second person singular, and “you” as second person plural, but somewhere along the way “you” started doing double duty.
Didn’t eliminate the need for a second person plural, though. Which is why “youse” (New York City), or “y’all” or “you all” (the South) came into being.
The difference is that “y’all” is a perfectly valid contraction of “you all”, whereas “youse” is a regional/dialectical colloquialism. It is used as both singular and plural.
In some parts, “y’all” is so entrenched that the plural of “y’all” is “all y’all.” Elsewhere it is indeed “y’alls.” Where is meatNick from originally?
Yes, I’m a writer and editor from Ohio, where the equivalent (plural only) is “you guys” or, in bleedover from Pittsburgh, “yenz.”
Heh. I live in Pittsburgh, where the conventional spelling is “yinz”. But perhaps “yenz” is an Ohio variant; I don’t know Ohio well enough to be sure.
Also, I’ve heard both “all y’all” and “y’all all” used as pluralizations of “y’all”. One gentleman from Georgia explained that he thinks of “y’all” as the term for addressing a group and “y’all all” as the term for addressing a large group made up of smaller groups.
Dude, scroll up. I totally just conjugated y’all’alls.
Deceased equine, meet cudgel. At least in this part of the south, the correct plural of “y’all” is indeed “all y’all”, with a connotation being not just y’all, a majority of a group, but all y’all: every one of the group.
What I’m used to is that “y’all” can be singular or plural, but as plural, it is nondescript or ambiguous, whereas “all y’all” is specific. Similar to what you described.